Applicability of Vapor Extraction Process to Problematic Viscous Oil Reservoirs

Applicability of Vapor Extraction Process to Problematic Viscous Oil Reservoirs Kulada Karmaker; Kulada Karmaker University of Calgary Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Brij B. Maini Brij B. Maini University of Calgary Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Paper presented at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Denver, Colorado, October 2003. Paper Number: SPE-84034-MS https://doi.org/10.2118/84034-MS Published: October 05 2003 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Get Permissions Search Site Citation Karmaker, Kulada, and Brij B. Maini. "Applicability of Vapor Extraction Process to Problematic Viscous Oil Reservoirs." Paper presented at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Denver, Colorado, October 2003. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/84034-MS Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAll ProceedingsSociety of Petroleum Engineers (SPE)SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition Search Advanced Search SummaryProduction of heavy oil and bitumen from subterranean deposits is difficult, even under best of circumstances, due to very high oil viscosity. The recovery by currently used thermal based methods is more problematic and uneconomical for some of the reservoir scenarios, such as the reservoirs with an overlying gas cap, bottom water table, high water saturation, low porosity, low thermal conductivity, thin pay zone, vertical fractures and/or fissures, etc. Currently there is no proven recovery technique that can be economically applicable to such viscous oil reservoirs. However, there is a huge amount of hydrocarbon resource present in such reservoirs that can only be exploited with new concepts.The Vapex (vapor extraction) process has recently emerged as a superior technology for the recovery of heavy oil and bitumen reservoirs. Recent research has shown that the process is highly energy efficient, environmentally friendly, causes in-situ upgrading, and requires low capital investment compared to its competitor SAGD process. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effectiveness of this newly postulated Vapex process to some of these problematic reservoir scenarios. An extensive experimental study has been carried out in a partially scaled physical model. Some experimental results, theoretical analysis, and the applicability of this process to such problematic viscous oil reservoirs are presented and discussed.IntroductionThe world estimate of natural resources in the forms of heavy oil and bitumen is about six trillion barrels of OOIP, which is about six times the total conventional oil reserves1,6. Majority of these viscous oil reservoirs are located in the United States, Canada and Venezuela. Unfortunately, the primary recovery in the best of these reservoirs can yield about only 6 percent of the OOIP2,3,4. Waterflooding is likely to produce some incremental oil, especially in the parts of reservoir where the mobility is relatively less adverse. But the overall incremental recovery that can be achieved with waterflooding is limited to 1–2 percent2 because of rapid increase water cut. The use of water-soluble polymers is likely to improve the mobility ratio. However, the very high oil viscosity makes this idea impractical in terms of cost effectiveness in most of the heavy oil reservoirs.Thermal based recovery methods seem to be very effective as the oil viscosity is very sensitive to temperature. While heating the reservoir oil, the major fraction of thermal energy is used up in heating the bulk reservoir rock, overburden and underburden. The thermal recovery techniques are not economically viable for the reservoirs with very thin payzone, bottom water zone and/or overlying gas zone, low thermal conductivity of rock matrix, high water saturation, low porosity, vertical fractures and/or fissures, etc. The recovery of oil from these reservoirs is considered to be problematic with the existing technologies.Vapex is a relatively new process that involves a drastic reduction of oil viscosity by diluting the oil with vaporized hydrocarbon solvents (HCS). It was conceived by Butler and Mokrys5 as a solvent analogue of the SAGD process. It uses solvent-leaching and gravity drainage as the key mechanisms. The process normally involves horizontal well pairs, with an injection well located directly above the production well, as shown schematically in Figure-1. The vaporized solvents, injected through the injection well, dissolve into the viscous oil and dramatically reduce its viscosity. The diluted oil is then mobile enough to drain down under the influence of gravity into the production well located near the bottom of the formation, from where it is pumped out to the surface. The pore space around the injection well from where the oil has been drained out remains filled with the solvent vapor and is referred to as "vapor chamber" in Figure-1. This vapor chamber grows laterally as more oil is drained out of the reservoir. Dissolution of the solvent vapor into the oil occurs at the walls of this growing vapor chamber and the diluted oil flows downwards in a thin layer adjoining the vapor chamber. Keywords: reservoir, viscous oil reservoir, oil production, hour period, vapex process, gas cap, injector, expt, solvent injection rate, injection rate Subjects: Improved and Enhanced Recovery This content is only available via PDF. 2003. Society of Petroleum Engineers You can access this article if you purchase or spend a download.

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